MeerLICHT first light

Telescope meets mount

On Monday 30 January 2017, the MeerLICHT telescope and counterweight were lifted into the observatory dome of the Radboud University, where the telescope and counterweight were connected to the telescope mount. Over the coming month, extensive testing will be performed including on-sky observations.

Cooled counterweight under construction in Nijmegen

Work on the cooled counterweight of MeerLICHT is progressing very well at Radboud University in Nijmegen. The MeerLICHT electronics will be housed in the counterweight of the telescope where excess heat will be removed through a water cooling system.

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The MeerLICHT telescope has been assembled for the first time at the Optical and Near-Infrared laboratory of ASTRON. Now it is time to test the alignment of the telescope’s optics and prepare for the first on-sky tests

The astrophysics group of the University of Oxford has joined the MeerLICHT project in September 2015. Central of Oxford’s involvement in MeerLICHT is Prof Fender and his research group working on radio transients. Prof Fender is also the co-principal investigator of the MeerKAT large survey project on radio transients, ThunderKAT, a project closely affiliated with MeerLICHT.

The MeerLICHT consortium agreement was signed on 28 November 2014 by the founding members of MeerLICHT, namely the University of Cape Town (represented by Prof Danie Visser, deputy vice chancellor for research and internationalisation), Radboud University Nijmegen (represented by Dr Mark Klein-Wolt, project manager of MeerLICHT), the South African Astronomical Observatory (represented by Prof Ted Williams, director), and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (represented by Dr Louis Vertegaal, director board for physical sciences)